The
Republic of Cape Verde ( ; , ) is an island country, spanning an archipelago located in the Macaronesia
ecoregion of the North
Atlantic
Ocean
, off the western coast of Africa, opposite Mauritania
and Senegal
.
It is slightly more than 4,000 km² in area with an estimated
population of over 500,000.
The capital of Cape Verde is Praia
.
The
previously uninhabited island were
discovered and colonized by the Portuguese
in the 15th century, and attained independence from Portugal in
1975.
As of 2007, Cape Verde is classified as a
developing country after being promoted
from
Least Developed
Countries status. About 20% of the population lives on less
than $1.25 (U.S.) a day.
History
Before the arrival of Europeans, the Cape Verde Islands were
uninhabited.
In 1462, Portuguese settlers arrived at Santiago
and founded a settlement they called Ribeira Grande
(now called Cidade
Velha
, to avoid being confused with the town of Ribeira
Grande
on the Santo Antão
island). Ribeira Grande was the first
permanent European settlement in the
tropics.
The
Portuguese named the islands Cabo Verde (from which the
English Cape Verde derives), after the nearby Cap Vert
on the Senegalese coast. In the 16th
century, the archipelago prospered from the
transatlantic slave trade.
Pirates occasionally attacked the Portuguese
settlements.
Sir Francis Drake
sacked Ribeira Grande in 1585.
After a French attack in 1712, the town
declined in importance relative to nearby Praia, which
became the capital in 1770.
With the decline in the slave trade, Cape Verde's early prosperity
slowly vanished. However, the islands' position astride
mid-Atlantic shipping lanes made Cape Verde an ideal location for
re-supplying ships.
Because of its excellent harbour, Mindelo
(on the
island of São Vicente
) became an important commercial center during the
19th century.
In 1951, Portugal changed Cape Verde's status from a colony to an
overseas province in an attempt to blunt growing
nationalism.
Nevertheless, in 1956, Amilcar Cabral, a Cape Verdean, and a group
of Cape Verdeans and Guineans organized (in Portuguese
Guinea
) the clandestine African
Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC),
which demanded improvement in economic, social, and political
conditions in Cape Verde and Portuguese Guinea and formed the basis
of the two nations' independence movement. Moving its
headquarters to Conakry
, Guinea in
1960, the PAIGC began an armed rebellion against Portugal in
1961. Acts of sabotage eventually grew into a
war in Portuguese Guinea
that pitted 10,000
Soviet bloc-supported
PAIGC soldiers against 35,000 Portuguese and African troops.
By 1972, the PAIGC controlled much of Portuguese Guinea despite the
presence of the Portuguese troops, but the organization did not
attempt to disrupt Portuguese control in Cape Verde. Portuguese
Guinea declared independence in 1973 and was granted
de jure independence in 1974. Following the
April 1974 revolution in
Portugal, the PAIGC became an active political movement in Cape
Verde. In December 1974, the PAIGC and Portugal signed an agreement
providing for a transitional government composed of Portuguese and
Cape Verdeans. On June 30, 1975, Cape Verdeans elected a National
Assembly, which received the instruments of independence from
Portugal on July 5, 1975.
Immediately following the
November
1980 coup in Guinea-Bissau, relations between Cape Verde and
Guinea-Bissau became strained. Cape Verde abandoned its hope for
unity with Guinea-Bissau and formed the
African Party
for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV). Problems have since
been resolved, and relations between the countries are good. The
PAICV and its predecessor established a one-party system and ruled
Cape Verde from independence until 1990.
Responding to growing pressure for pluralistic democracy, the PAICV
called an emergency congress in February 1990 to discuss proposed
constitutional changes to end one-party rule. Opposition groups
came together to form the
Movement for Democracy
(MPD) in Praia in April 1990. Together, they campaigned for the
right to contest the presidential election scheduled for December
1990.
The one-party state was abolished September 28, 1990, and the first
multi-party elections were held in January 1991. The MPD won a
majority of the seats in the National Assembly, and MPD
presidential candidate
António Mascarenhas
Monteiro defeated the PAICV's candidate with 73.5% of the
votes. Legislative elections in December 1995 increased the MPD
majority in the National Assembly. The party won 50 of the National
Assembly's 72 seats.
A February 1996 presidential election returned President Monteiro
to office. Legislative elections in January 2001 returned power to
the PAICV, with the PAICV holding 40 of the National Assembly
seats, MPD 30, and
Party for Democratic
Convergence (PCD) and
Party for Labor and
Solidarity(PTS) 1 each. In February 2001, the PAICV-supported
presidential candidate
Pedro Pires
defeated former MPD leader
Carlos Veiga
by only 13 votes.
Politics
Cape Verde is a stable democracy. The
Cape Verde constitution—adopted
in 1980 and revised in 1992, 1995, and 1999—forms the basis of
government. The
president is
head of state and is elected by
popular vote for a 5-year term. The
prime minister is
head of government and proposes
other ministers and secretaries of state. The prime minister is
nominated by the
National Assembly and
appointed by the president. Members of the National Assembly are
elected by popular vote for 5-year terms. Three parties now hold
seats in the National Assembly—PAICV 40, MPD 30, and Cape Verdean
Independent Democratic Union (UCID) 2.
The judicial system consists of a Supreme Court of Justice — whose
members are appointed by the president, the National Assembly, and
the Board of the Judiciary — and regional courts. Separate courts
hear civil, constitutional, and criminal cases. Appeal is to the
Supreme Court.
In 2008, Cape Verde placed 3rd out of 48 sub-Saharan African
countries in the
Ibrahim Index of African
Governance, scoring very well in Safety and Security and Rule
of Law, Transparency and Corruption. The Ibrahim Index is a
comprehensive measure of African governance, based on a number of
different variables which reflect the success with which
governments deliver essential political goods to its citizens.
[702252]
Cape Verde follows a policy of
nonalignment and seeks cooperative relations
with all friendly states.
Angola
, Brazil
, the
People's
Republic of China
, Cuba
, France
, Germany
, Portugal, Spain
, Senegal, Russia
, and the
United
States
maintain embassies in Praia. Cape
Verde is actively interested in foreign affairs, especially in
Africa. It has
bilateral relations with
some
Lusophone nations and holds
membership in a number of international organizations. It also
participates in most international conferences on economic and
political issues. Cape Verde has a
Special Partnership
status with the
EU and might apply for
membership.
The
military of Cape Verde
consists of a
coast guard and an
army; 0.7% of the country's GDP was spent on
the military in 2005.
Geography and climate
The Cape Verde archipelago is located approximately off the coast
of West Africa. It is composed of ten islands (of which nine are
inhabited) and eight islets. The islands have a combined size of
just over 4,000 square kilometers.
The islands are divided into the Barlavento
(windward) islands
(Santo
Antão, São Vicente, Santa Luzia
, São Nicolau
, Sal
, and
Boa
Vista
) and the Sotavento
(leeward) islands (Maio
, Santiago, Fogo
, and Brava
). The largest island, both in size and
population, is Santiago, where the capital of Praia is
located.
Though Cape Verde's islands are all volcanic in origin, they vary
widely in terrain.
A still-active volcano on the island of
Fogo
is the highest point on the archipelago (elevation
2,829 meters). Extensive
salt
flats are found on Sal and Maio. On Santiago, Santo Antão, and
São Nicolau, arid slopes give way in places to sugarcane fields or
banana plantations spread along the base of towering
mountains.
Cape Verde’s climate is milder than that of the African mainland;
because the island is surrounded by the sea, temperatures are
generally moderate. Average daily high temperatures range from in
January to in September. Cape Verde is part of the
Sahelian arid belt, with nothing like the rainfall
levels of nearby West Africa. It does rain irregularly between
August and October, with frequent brief-but-heavy downpours. A
desert is usually defined as terrain
which receives less than 250 mm of annual rainfall. Cape
Verde's total (261 mm) is slightly above this criterion, which
makes the area climate
semi-desert.
Cape Verde's isolation has resulted in the islands having a number
of
endemic species, particularly bird and reptiles, many of
which are
endangered by human
development. Endemic
birds include
Alexander's Swift (
Apus
alexandri), the
Raso Lark (
Alauda
razae), the
Cape Verde
Warbler (
Acrocephalus brevipennis), and the
Iago Sparrow (
Passer iagoensis). The
islands are also an important breeding area for seabirds including
the
Cape Verde Shearwater.
Reptiles include the
Cape Verde Giant Gecko (
Tarentola
gigas).
The islands are geologically principally composed of
igneous rocks, with basic volcanics and pyroclastics
comprising the majority of the total volume. The
volcanic and
plutonic rocks
are distinctly basic in character.
The archipelago is an example of a
soda-alkaline petrographic province, with a petrologic succession
which is similar to that found in other Mid Atlantic
islands.Mount
Fogo is an active volcano which
most recently erupted in 1995. Fogo’s
caldera is 8 km in diameter, the rim is at an
elevation of 1600 m with an interior cone rising to 2830 m from the
crater's floor level. Calderas probably result from the subsidence,
following the partial evacuation of the
magma
chamber, of a cylindrical block into the supplying magma chamber,
in this case lying at a depth of some 8 km.The archipelago has
been dated at approximately 180 million years old.
Hurricanes that form near the Cape Verde Islands are sometimes
referred to as
Cape Verde-type
hurricanes. These hurricanes can become very intense as they
cross warm Atlantic waters.
Administrative divisions
Cape Verde is divided into 22
municipalities (
concelhos) and
subdivided into 32
parishes
(
freguesias):
Economy
.JPG/180px-Mercado_Municipal_(S_Vicente,_Cabo_Verde).JPG)
Municipal market in S.
Cape Verde has few natural resources and suffers from scant
rainfall and limited fresh water. Only 4 of the 10 main islands
(Santiago, Santo Antão, Fogo, and Brava) normally support
significant agricultural production, and over 90% of all food
consumed in Cape Verde is imported. Mineral resources include salt,
pozzolana (a volcanic rock used in cement
production), and
limestone.
The economy of Cape Verde is service-oriented, with commerce,
transport, and public services accounting for more than 70% of
GDP. Although nearly 70% of the population lives
in rural areas, agriculture and fishing contribute only about 9% of
GDP.
Light manufacturing
accounts for most of the remainder. Fish and shellfish are
plentiful, and small quantities are exported. Cape Verde has cold
storage and freezing facilities and fish processing plants in
Mindelo, Praia, and on Sal. Expatriate Cape Verdeans contribute an
amount estimated at about 20% of GDP to the domestic economy
through remittances.
Since 1991, the government has pursued market-oriented economic
policies, including an open welcome to
foreign investors and a far-reaching
privatization program. It established
as top development priorities the promotion of a
market economy and of the private sector; the
development of
tourism, light
manufacturing industries, and fisheries; and the development of
transport,
communications, and energy
facilities. From 1994 to 2000 about $407 million in foreign
investments were made or planned, of which 58% were in tourism, 17%
in industry, 4% in infrastructure, and 21% in fisheries and
services.
Cape
Verde's strategic location at the crossroads of mid-Atlantic air and sea lanes has been enhanced by significant
improvements at Mindelo's harbor (Porto
Grande) and at Sal's
and Praia's international
airports. A new international airport
was opened in Boa Vista in December 2007. Ship repair facilities at
Mindelo were opened in 1983. The major ports are Mindelo and Praia,
but all other islands have smaller port facilities. In addition to
the international airport on Sal,
airports have been built on
all of the inhabited islands. All but the airport on Brava enjoy
scheduled air service. The archipelago has of roads, of which are
paved, most using
cobblestone.
The country's future economic prospects depend heavily on the
maintenance of aid flows, the encouragement of tourism,
remittances, outsourcing labor to neighboring African countries,
and the momentum of the government's development program.
Cape Verde has significant cooperation with Portugal at every level
of the economy, which has led it to link its currency first to the
Portuguese escudo and, in 1999, to
the
euro. On June 23, 2008 Cape Verde became
the 153rd member of the WTO.
Demographics
Local people from Santiago
island
Population pyramid, 2005
Around 71 percent of the population is
Creole of mixed
black
African and
Portuguese
descent. The remainder of the population is mostly black Africans,
with a small number of
whites. The
European men who colonized Cape Verde did not usually bring wives
or families with them. As female
African slaves were brought to the
islands, inter-marriages occurred.
More than 85 percent of the population is nominally
Roman Catholic, though for a minority of the
population Catholicism is
syncretized
with African influences. The largest
Protestant denomination is the
Church of the Nazarene; other groups
include the
Seventh-day
Adventist Church,
the Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the
Assemblies of God, the
Universal Church of the
Kingdom of God, and various other
Pentecostal and
evangelical groups. There are small
Baha'i communities and a small
Muslim community. The number of
atheists is estimated at less than 1 percent of the
population.
Cape Verde's official language is Portuguese. It is the language of
instruction and government. However, the
Cape Verdean Creole is used colloquially
and is the mother tongue of virtually all Cape Verdeans. Cape
Verdean Creole or Kriolu is a dialect continuum of a
Portuguese-based
creole, which
varies from island to island. There is a substantial body of
literature in Creole, especially in the
Santiago Creole and the
São Vicente Creole. Creole has been
gaining prestige since the nation's independence from Portugal.
However, the differences between the varied forms of the language
within the islands have been a major obstacle in the way of
standardization of the language. Some people have advocated the
development of two standards: a North (Barlavento) standard,
centered on the São Vicente Creole, and a South (Sotavento)
standard, centered on the Santiago Creole. Manuel Veiga, PhD, a
linguist by training, and Minister of Culture of Cape Verde, is the
premier proponent of Kriolu's officialization and
standardization.
Cape Verdean diaspora
Today,
more Cape Verdeans live abroad than in Cape Verde itself, with
significant emigrant Cape Verdean communities in the United States (500,000 Cape Verdeans, with a major concentration
on the New
England
coast from Providence, Rhode Island
, to New Bedford, Massachusetts
). There are also significant Cape Verde
populations in São Tomé and Príncipe
, Portugal (80,000), Angola (45,000),
Senegal (25,000),
the Netherlands
(20,000, of which 15,000 are concentrated in
Rotterdam
), and Italy
(10,000). There is also a Cape Verdean community in
Argentina
numbering 8,000.
In the USA, the children and grandchildren of the first immigrant
waves became involved in the
Civil
Rights movement of the 1960s. This led them to make links with
other US black groups.
Cape Verdeans moved to places all over the
world, from Macau
to
Haiti
to Argentina to northern Europe.
Culture
Cape Verdean social and cultural patterns are similar to those of
rural Portugal and Africa.
Soccer games and
church activities are typical sources of social interaction and
entertainment. The traditional walk around the praça (
town square) to meet friends is practiced
regularly in Cape Verde towns. In towns with electricity,
television is available on two channels (Cape Verdean and
Portuguese).
Cape Verde music incorporates Portuguese, Caribbean, African, and
Brazilian influences. Cape Verde's quintessential national music is
the
morna, a melancholy and
lyrical song form typically sung in
Cape Verdean Creole. The most popular
music genre after
morna is
the
coladeira followed by
funaná and
batuque music. Amongst the most
worldwide known Cape Verdean singers, is the singer
Cesaria Evora, whose songs became a hallmark
of the country and its culture.There are also well known artist
born to Cape Verdean parents who excelled themselves. Amongst these
artists are jazz pianist
Horace
Silver,
Duke Ellington’s
saxophonist
Paul Gonsalves and singer
Lura.
Dance forms include the soft dance
morna, the extreme
sensuality of
coladeira including
the modernized version called
passada (
zouk), the
Funaná
(a sensual mixed Portuguese and African dance), and the
Batuque dance.
Cape Verdean literature is one of the richest of
Lusophone Africa. Famous poets include Paulino
Vieira, Manuel de Novas, Sergio Frusoni, Eugénio Tavares, and B.
Léza, and famous authors include
Baltasar Lopes da Silva, António
Aurélio Gonçalves,
Manuel Lopes,
Henrique Teixeira de
Sousa, and
Germano
Almeida.
The Cape Verde diet is mostly based on fish and staple foods like
corn and rice. Vegetables available during most of the year are
potatoes, onions, tomatoes, manioc, cabbage, kale, and dried beans.
Fruits like banana and papayas are available year-round, while
others like mangos and avocados are seasonal. A popular dish served
in Cape Verde is
Cachupa.
Health, education, and development
Primary school education in Cape Verde is mandatory between the
ages of 6 and 14 years and free for children ages 6 to 12. In 1997,
the
gross primary enrollment
rate was 148.8 percent. While enrollment rates indicate a level
of commitment to education, they do not always reflect children’s
participation in school. Textbooks have been made available to 90
percent of school children, and 83 percent of the teachers have
attended in-service teacher training. Although most children have
access to education, some problems remain. For example, many
students and some teachers speak Creole at home and have a poor
command of Portuguese (the language of instruction); there is
insufficient spending on school materials, lunches, and books; and
there is a high repetition rate for certain grades.
Cape Verde has been steadily developing since its independence, and
besides having been promoted to the group of "medium development"
countries in 2007, leaving the
Least Developed Countries category
(which is only the second time it has happened to a country), is
currently the
9th best
ranked country in Africa in terms of
Human Development Index.
The European Commission's total allocation for the period of
2008-2013 foreseen for Cape Verde to address "poverty reduction, in
particular in rural and periurban areas where women are heading the
households, as well as good governance" amounts to €54.1 million
European Commission.
See also
References
External links
- Government
- General information
- Tourism
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Facts
Map
Misc
Search
